My mountain adventures in words and pictures

Solo Platteklip Hike

Oh how I miss winter! Saturday’s solo hike in the heat made me miss winter all the more. I want to hike in the rain damnit!, not only because we desperately need the rain but because hiking under the glaring sun sucks! and there’s less people on the mountain 😛

I didn’t have time to write this blog over the weekend as I was too busy watching ‘13 Reasons Why’ lol. Also, I ended up sleeping most of Saturday afternoon after I caught a Cold x_x (correction – attempted sleeping as how can one sleep with a blocked and runny nose and sneezing as though you are in a competition)

Anyway, so the daughter had to be at the Aquarium before 8am on Saturday and was scheduled to scuba dive in the tank at 11am. I had 2 hours to myself and decided to do a solo Platties 😀 (as long as I don’t pick up litter as that adds another 30-60 minutes and I can’t be late for the daughter’s dive)

So around 8am, I’m looking for parking around Platties -_-. Drove almost all the way to Devil’s Peak before turning around again and fortunately, someone pulled out close to the start of the route! I have never had to look for parking before but also, I hardly ever start hiking that late in the morning.

Lathered myself with Sun-block and left my pepper spray in the car as I seriously doubted I would be mugged with such a lot of people on the mountain. Also decided to wear my trail running shoes instead of hiking boots (not my Salomon’s of last week as downhill hurt my toes so tried out my Adidas shoes. I only wore this once as it burned my feet when I did Rhodes to Newlands on Christmas day last year). Also used my trail running back pack instead of hiking back pack with basic essentials. Hook camera bag around my waist for my phone as to not waste time by taking my backpack off and back on again when I wanted to take photos. I did however forget one of my most essential items! Tissues! I’m always snotty on a hike sigh but fortunately found 2 serviettes in the car hehe.

Anyhoo, check in with Mountain Tracking and Safety at 8:10am, ETA 10am.

Up I go and set myself a comfortable pace as I don’t want to exert myself and get heat stroke. I pass a few people going up and surprisingly don’t have to take a breather when I get to the contour path so carry on. In fact, I didn’t take any breathers. Only time I stopped was to take photos and that was only 4 times lol.

What I noticed about Saturday Platties hikers is that they don’t greet. Must be those who migrated over from Lion’s Head lol. I’ve mentioned in previous blogs that Lion’s Head do not have the friendliest of hikers. This time, I didn’t mind though as I kept my head down most of the way attempting to keep my face out of the sun and focused on each step. Also, I saved much needed energy by not having conversations with anyone lol.

One thing though is that they don’t really give way to passing hikers. Several times I had to waste my energy and slow down my pace with ‘Excuse me, can I pass please?’ or ‘Excuse me….not really an ideal place to sit ON the path as others cannot pass you’

At one stage I contemplated turning back due to the intense heat but unfortunately for me, I’m not a quitter sigh so endured it. About ¾ of the way up, there was a noisy bunch that was shouting in order to hear their voices echo. I wanted to tell them to shutup but instead told their friend higher up to pass my message on lol.

Reached the peak at 9:10am and had to look around for a place to sit in the shade lol. Is Platties always this busy on a Saturday? I didn’t bring any snacks so just drank water and cooled down a bit with a photo here and there. Asked another guy to take a photo of me and off I go again at 9:20am updating tracking.

I wanted to run down but rocks has become sandy and slippery with all the human traffic so didn’t chance it. I only ran on the flat sections and by then, my feet started burning again. I’m wearing trail running socks so really don’t think the Adidas shoes is made for summer months meh.

I smiled when I saw that guy who hikes Platties only wearing a shorts. No sweater, no shoes – just shorts. Even in the middle of winter when we are layered, he’s only in his shorts. He was missing his heart rate monitor though. He was late too.

Same problem I had going up, I had going down ‘Excuse me, can I pass please?’ or ‘Excuse me….not really an ideal place to sit ON the path as others cannot pass you’. Only this time, the friendlier hikers were still going up and asking how long to the top. I can only estimate at their pace and one complained for being honest lol.

I gratefully check out of tracking at 9:55am just when I sipped the last of my water. 1 hour up and 35 minutes down is not my Personal Best. Maybe I can achieve a new PB in winter when it’s a lot cooler and a lot less people on the mountain. PB being 55min up and 35min down.

What I did notice though is that Saturday hikers are a lot cleaner than Sunday hikers! Or maybe the litter bugs are the lazy afternoon hikers.

Until my next mountain adventure, ciao for now and thank you reading.

PS – the daughter’s dive was later than scheduled and that’s how I caught a cold. Wearing wet sweaty clothes for so long. Hold your horses! I freshened up in the bathroom so wasn’t stinky.

For the first time in months! I slept in on Sunday even though after morning prayers, I considered getting back up and going on a mountain adventure but decided against it as I had a cold to nurse and household chores to be done sigh.

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